The upcoming AJC list

That list is ridiculously depressing. I don't know Moore well, but know he's a darn good columnist. Knobler is one of the nicer guys you could meet and had just moved to the Thrashers beat from the Georgia Tech beat.
Also, John Hollis' name was on there - believe he covered Tech for a long time before moving over to news-side.
Boy, I remember the days living in Birmingham when I'd buy the AJC at my corner gas station and marvel, dreaming of working there someday.
I don't think there'll be an AJC to work at soon, sadly, at least not in its current form.

 

Boggles the mind that this, the fourth round of buyouts in just over two years, is still generating raised eyebrows over the talent walking out the door. Just gives you an idea of just how much talent was stockpiled by the AJC. It is also now worth wondering what the paper is going to cover and what it will decide not to cover. Those decisions seem imminent.

 

Well it didn't cover the Final Four or Super Bowl, so I think it's pretty obvious that they've made the decision. They will cover as little as possible. Next up, no more NBA or NHL road games.

 

I cannot stand Terence Moore's columns. Yet I liked him very much. He was a very gracious gentleman to me.

 

Thanks, Big Red. Your check is in the mail.

Here is the complete sports-related list of the people who took the buyout and did not request to be omitted from the public list:

Clark Freeman, copy editor
John Hollis, former Georgia Tech reporter (a news reporter for five years)
George Leite, copy editor
Rachel Lister, copy editor
Derrick Mahone, former preps reporter (a news reporter for about a year)
Terence Moore, columnist
Chip Saye, high schools editor and page designer
Mark Slockett, clerk and all-around great guy

And me.

Not on this list but a major part of this round of cuts, the part-timers, including Todd Holcomb.

You might not know Clark, George and Rachel, but I owe them all for catching some of my screw-ups. Thanks to them, and to all the copy editors out there who get too little credit and too much blame.

I was planning a career change, so the buyout is nothing but a good thing for me. It's a longer-than-expected paid summer vacation before law school. I probably would have chosen to get out of the business even if the business hadn't been shrinking/transforming/disappearing as it has. I was ready for a change.

When I decided to swap sports writing for law I thought I was being original, but I have since learned otherwise. One example: Jim Carty, who kicked butt for the Ann Arbor News, is a 1L at Toledo.

I'm hoping to become a law professor someday. I'm not sure where I will be heading this fall; Georgetown is the leader in the clubhouse while I await word from several other schools.

Thanks to everybody in the newspaper business. It's a noble calling pursued by amazing people I have been proud to call colleagues.

 

There's a lot of experience set to walk out that door at 72 Marietta St. if that list is accurate.
Will the last person to leave the AJC turn out the lights and take Henry Grady's cold, dead body with you?

 

The Knoblers grew up out here. I worked with his brother Danny for a brief time before he moved to Detroit.
I met Mike at some NCAA regional many years ago and remembered him being the only Harvard grad covering sports in Mississippi.
Both are great guys.
Sorry to hear this, Mike, best of luck in whatever is in your future.

 

My God, the high school editor is gone. Wasn't he just about the only full-time employee left covering preps? Good thing they don't like high school football in the South.

 

Chip was a high school editor, not the high school editor. Forgive me for the lack of precision in my post.

 

The AJC actually released the list of names of people taking the buyout?

That's unusual, isn't it?

 

How many high school editors and/or reporters are left? I though I remembered Ramos saying at an APSE thing several months ago that they were using almost exclusively part-timers to cover high schools.